Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 31

Minneapolis Star and Tribune Wednesday August 101983 7B Unfamiliar chores become routine in Bell strike Dojv clones Indpstrials 1,168.27 Up 5.21 union workers to handle the job. "The network is a highly automated network, but this company is still highly dependent on people," said Tom Lee, a spokesman for the company. "If a tree falls across a line, water can get into an underground cable, relays can get dirty. We need people to find out what that problem is and where it is. Strike or no strike, we try to find that problem as quickly as possible." company must perform well, given the added complications a severe storm would cause.

"A severe storm or other unusual weather could place a heavy strain on linemen and repair operators," he said. "We have a very good track record in that area and we want to maintain that." So far, Lee said, the company has been able to keep up with repair By Anthony Carideo Staff Writer Bob Bossert normally writes for the company newspaper. Marlys Jacob-son works in the personnel office and Laurel Lindridge is a marketing analyst. Ron Rosencrans writes speeches. That's normally.

All are spending their days and nights lately at a far different job: telephone repair service. was trained for her new job, went home to tend to her family and then returned to work her first 12-hour shift, she had been awake for 30 hours. With about 8,000 Northwestern Bell operators and technicians walking the picket lines Tuesday, the third day of a nationwide strike against American Telephone Telegraph repair service is one of the most strike-sensitive areas in the business, and the company has had to scramble to train its supervisors and non- lines and, at least for the meantime, trying to master the complexities of a fairly technical job. Said Laurel Lindridge, a marketing analyst for Northwestern Bell in Minneapolis, "It's been interesting. I am seeing a different part of the company and how it works.

I would say, though, that if this strike goes on for ages and ages, it could lose some of its charm." Actually, for Lindridge, the strike started with a yawn. By the time she Working in 12-hour shifts, six days a week, these Northwestern Bell management people are filling in for striking workers at computer terminals In the company's central operator center in St. Paul. This is where trouble calls come from around the state, both from Northwestern Bell customers and customers of independent companies. Instead of analyzing markets or writing speeches, these workers are sending out repair orders, trying to figure out what's wrong with people's III.

II I I Ill lino, jmuiiiwji ill IJI miiy Ijimllll Lee said the repair division of the Strike continued on page 12B 3M says it plans to give up making disk-drive units 1 91-. I r- 'II r- Staff Photo by Mike Zerby Among the prospective home buyers sitting in line Tuesday outside First Bank in downtown Minne apolis were, from foreground, Juliana Vrhel, Maple-wood; Terry Skroch, Buffalo, Rose Shea, Eagan. seekers queue early 10.25 percent loans Group wants Gamble split from Wickes A group of creditors of the Wickes Companies, is seeking to file its own financial reorganization plan that would, in effect, split off any Gamble-Skogmo-related businesses from their parent company. the group of creditors represents holders of Gamble-Skogmo income notes. Wickes, formed in 1980 when California-based Wickes Corp.

acquired Gamble, filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy laws in April 1982. (Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings allow a company to continue operating but receive court protection from creditors while it works out a plan to repay its debts.) On Friday, Wickes will ask the bankruptcy court in Los Angeles to extend for six months the period during which Wickes has exclusive rights for filing a reorganization plan. The company, which has been granted four previous extensions, has presented proposals to creditors that, if approved, would have the company emerging from bankruptcy late next year or early in 1985. But the note-holders group is opposed to the extension. In court filings, it says the Gamble businesses which include Twin Cities-based Red Owl supermarkets and Snyder's drug stores are in good enough financial shape to be reorganized now.

Any further delay, the filings charge, "only serves to seriously jeopardize the interests of Gamble creditors." Though their claims rank below those of banks and suppliers, the 40,000 note holders are largest group of Wickes' creditors, said Bruce Hendry, chairman of the group. The group holds notes with a total face value of about $250 million. Most are small investors who bought the notes in the late 1960s and 1970s because of the frequent interest payments tied to what were then attractive coupon rates of 7 to 10 percent. But inflation eroded the value of the fixed-rate coupons, and Wickes has not made interest payments on the notes since its bankruptcy, filing last spring. Hendry, a vice president of the Minneapolis brokerage firm of Craig-Hallum, said the note-holders group has estimated that the Gamble companies have about $268 million Wickes continued on page 8B Mortgage hoping for Associated Press A St Paul bank will use a lottery to determine who qualifies for low-interest home mortgages under a state program.

But at other financial institutions, prospective customers have begun forming lines days in advance. First Merchants Bank of St. Paul will use a lottery to determine who will receive the 10.25 percent home mortgages, when 52 financial institutions in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area begin taking applications this By Steve Gross Staff Writer Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. (3M) said Tuesday that it is dropping out of the highly competitive market for disk-drive computer storage units and is trying to sell its assets related to that business.

In a market where products are typically sold in quantities of 50 to 100 units at a time, 3M reportedly sold only 400 disk drives in the two years it has been in the field, according to Electronic News, a computer-industry trade publication. 3M declined to comment on how many it had sold. When it introduced the disk drives in 1981, they ranged in price from $1,700 to $3,750 each in quantities of 50 to 99. "While acceptance (of the product) was good, it still was not enough to make it truly viable," said 3M spokesman Alan Fobes. The problem apparently was that 3M found itself in one of the most competitive segments of the computer disk-drive market the Winchester-type pioneered by IBM that provides greater storage capacity and reliability than previous models.

The market for small Winchester disk drives "is an intensely competitive business, and 3M couldn't make a mark in it," said Dain Bosworth analyst Mike Monahan. "I don't think 3M was able to distinguish themselves (from competitors) as well as they would like and do as well as they had hoped." 3M is continuing to negotiate the sale of its disk-drive business to Disc Tech One, a Santa Barbara, disk-drive manufacturer, Fobes said. Regardless of whether the sale is consummated, 3M will not er on their own, said Richard Pyle, vice president for research at Piper, Jaffray Hopwood, Inc. Investors might be willing to pay more for the separate parts of the company than they would for the whole, he said. Napco's stock closed yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange at $14.75, down 25 cents for the day.

If the separation is approved, it could not take place before spring, said Rappaport It must be discussed with regulatory agencies, the Internal Revenue Service and the company's creditors. He does not believe that Napco's stockholders must vote on the matter, Rappaport said. Wordtronix makes word-processing systems designed for office workers who have not used such equipment. Lee Data makes multifunction computer-terminal systems. Napco may split up to handle its 2 businesses; Saturday night to be first in line when the Independent Mortgages Services firm begins taking applications.

They slept two nights in the hallway outside the firm's offices of Independent Mortgage Services. Flaherty said they were told to sleep outside the building- Monday and Tuesday nights. "We knew we had to be among the first here to get a loan," said Flaherty of Shoreview, who brought Mortgages continued on page 8B choose. The Napco name probably would remain with the military products firm, he said, and the other would revert to Mass Merchandisers, the name of the wholesaler before it was acquired by Napco in 1977. Mark Witmer, a research analyst at the brokerage house of Dain, Bosworth, agreed that the successor firms might be able to borrow money and sell stock more easily because their areas of operation would be clear in the minds of investors.

The two companies might grow fast remain in the business, Fobes said. Electronic News said the sale terms include the exchange of 3M's disk-drive inventory and manufacturing equipment for an undisclosed amount of cash, plus a provision that Disc Tech One provide service to 3M's disk-drive customers. The 3M manufacturing had taken place in the Los Angeles suburb of Camarillo. Fobes said he didn't know the details of the negotiations. When 3M entered the Winchester disk-drive market in early 1981, more than 30 companies were vyiiig for market share with similar products that stored data on 8-inch diameter disks.

Those disk drives were used in mid-sized minicomputer systems, such as those used by some businesses. Since then, the market for drives using 8-inch diameter disks has been hurt by the availability of disk drives that record the same amount of data on a 5-inch disk. Valerie Spencer, a Dain Bosworth research analyst said 8-inch disk drives must now offer storage of 100 million bytes of data or more to be competitive. 3M's models offered 10 to 60 million bytes. 3M suffered from "the general problem with the 8-inch rigid disk market which has been hitting everybody," Fobes said.

Some other companies already have dropped their 8-inch Winchester disk-drive product lines, he said. "The entire market is not as strong as was originally expected." One of 3M's strategies in getting into the disk-drive market was to enhance its development of new computer disks, which it continues to manufacture, Fobes said. Gary Rappaport IC Industries has acquired 24.5 of Trane's stock, but has said the holding is strictly an investment. Roth said, "We are fully capable of, and committed to, acting in the best interest of our shareholders, employees and other constituencies in the event of a tender offer." In brief Sperry Corp. has received an order for a large-scale Sparry 1 10060 computer system, valued at about $2 million, from Phoenix Prudential Australia, an Australian insurance firm.

The contract calls for the new system to replace two Sperry medium-scale processors. The computer systems are produced in Roseville by Sperry'8 computer operations. Comserv Eagan, has signed a contract with Ciba-Geigy headquartered in Switzerland, to provide education on its computer software for Ciba-Geigy employees from New Jersey, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina and New York. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. Compiled from staff reports and Star and Tribune news services.

I 5 morning. Anyone with a home-purchase agreement can qualify for the lottery if they meet an income test and the house does not cost more than a specified amount "This (the lottery) is the only way we can be fair and avoid having our parking lot fill up with people," said Les Goderstad, vice president in charge of lending at First Merchants Bank. But in Roseville, Nancy Flaherty and Chris Biehn have been waiting since In 1982 the wholesale division, Service Merchandising Group, recorded a pretax loss of $8.7 million on sales of $267 million, primarily because of losses in shutting down a Reno, warehouse and costs of inventory and personnel reductions that followed overaggressive expansion in 1981. The International Marketing Group earned $6.3 million before taxes on revenues of $61 million. "The companies' strategies have different directions, and each will grow on its own," said Gary Rappaport, Napco's chairman.

He said he was uncertain which company he would remain with and which one Napco's president Frank Trestman, would plant in St. Paul, according to plant manager Robert Major. He said, "We plan on being back in operation tomorrow (Wednesday night)." Major said an extra shift is planned for Saturday to make up for the lost shift, which affected about 600 workers. Such shortages "happen from time to time near the end of the production year," Major said. Light trucks are assembled at the plant.

Marketplace pulse By Joe Blade Staff Writer Napco Industries, is considering splitting into two independent companies that would operate its two quite different businesses and would be owned by its present stockholders. The Hopkins firm sold its manufacturing divisions in the 1970s and now runs the country's second largest service-merchandising firm, which provides wholesale nonfood goods to supermarkets, food and drug stores. It also sells military products to foreign governments. seasonal expectations as graduates and students entered the labor force. Department analyst Susan Hamper said the increase in the unemployment rate was significantly less than the 13-year average.

The normal increase from May to June has been six-tenths of 1 percent, she said. The metropolitan labor force in June was pegged at 1 ,164,900, up 1 4,700 from May but down 23,200 from June of last year. The number of people employed in June was 1 ,084,400, an increase of 10,400 from May but down 24,700 from June 1982. Companies Part shortage shuts Ford plant overnight A shortage of automatic transmissions for diesel trucks forced a one-day cancellation of the night shift at the Ford assembly A definitive agreement is expected to be signed within a few days, and a special meeting of Port Huron shareholders is expected to be held in late September to vote on the transaction. Pentair operates three paper-manufacturing subsidiaries, one that makes portable electric tools and a meat byproducts subsidiary.

Port Huron, which would become a Pentair subsidiary, produces lightweight specialty papers and office paper products. It had 1982 sales of $108 million, while Pentair's 1982 sales totaled $27 1 million. Lee Data to buy all Wordtronix shares Lee Data Corp. and Wordtronix, both of Eden Prairie, said that directors of both companies have agreed that Lee Data win acquire Wordtronix. The terms of the transaction caD for the exchange of 1 75 of a share of Lee Data common stock for each share of Wordtronix common.

The transaction is valued at about $6.4 million, based on 1 .7 million outstanding Wordtronix shares. Economy Metro-area jobless rate up 0.3 in June The unemployment rate in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area followed the statewide trend during June, edging upward by three-tenths of 1 percent, Minnesota Economic Security Commissioner Barbara Beerhaiter said Tuesday. The jobless rate in the Twin Cities in June was 6.9 percent, up from 6.6 percent in May and 6.7 percent in June 1982. The statewide unemployment rate in June was 8.

1 percent, while the comparable national rate for the same month was 10.2 percent. (The state and Twin Cities rates are not seasonally adjusted. The most frequently cited national rate is seasonally adjusted, and it stood at 10.0 percent in June before falling to 9.5 percent in July.) Beerhaiter said the increase from May to June followed normal Trane chief denies firm is defenseless William G. Roth, chairman and chief executive officer of Trane denied that the company would be unable to defend itself against a takeover attempt. "We are not defenseless in the event any organization were to launch a tender offer for Trane," Roth said in a letter to employees of the La Crosse-based firm.

The Milwaukee Sentinel, using a tape recording of Roth's comments at a New York meeting of security analysts, said Roth reported that Trane would be "virtually defenseless" if IC Industries, were to make a tender offer to acquire majority ownership of Trane's stock. The tape was furnished by the analysts society, but Rdth denied making that statement. m.lii. ij. mi.

Acquisitions Pentair to acquire Port Huron Paper Pentair, a St. Paul-based paper manufacturer, will acquire the Port Huron Paper Co. of Port Huron, under an agreement approved in principle by the directors of both companies. Pentair said that for each share of Port Huron common stock wiH pay 1 6.25 cash or exchange 0.65 share of Pentair common stock, as each stockholder may choose. If cash is paid for all 950,457 outstanding Port Huron shares, the transaction would have a value of about $15.4 million.

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